Return Soldier: How to Surrender the War Part 2- Surrender Dynamics

Greetings Conquerors!

In Part 1 we looked at motives in the journey of soul searching and discovered that a motiveless inquiry is as equally bad as a negative motive. Moreover having a good motive without knowledge of who to ask is just as bad, for nothing will come out of it. However if one decides to ask questions, there is an element of accepting that they have personally failed and do not know the answers to their challenges. If they knew them, they would not be seeking answers but instead applying them. Seeking answers makes one vulnerable to the object of their inquiry. Clearly, there is an element of spoken (full surrender) or unspoken surrender (partial surrender). Today we want to look at some surrender dynamics as taught in the word of God. Before we do so, it is important to first establish why we experience conflict internally in the first place. As human beings we exist and operate on 3 levels which must be insync if things are to work. Genesis 1:7 reads, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul

Body (Man of Dust)

The body or flesh is the visible part of our being. It is the shell that we see. We all know the Adam story- this part is made of earth and belongs to this world . This part answers to this world and what happens in it. It feeds on the earth (foods come from the earth).

Spirit (Breath of Life)

This is the God part of our existence. The antenna that connects us to our creator. This is also a body living in us and it feeds on the bread of life (the word-Jesus) being originated from God himself and of God. It is the light in us being of the light of life.

Soul (Living Soul)

Lastly is the soul which comes into existence when the spirit and the body come together. The soul is what seperates one individual from the next. The internal uniqueness of each human being. The soul is the decision centre made up of the will, the mind and the emotions. The soul being caught in between spirit and flesh feeds from either of them for good or bad, life or death. As mentioned earlier the tripatite (3) part being must be in unity to avoid conflict.

ALL 3 cannot self exist and need each other at every point to bring positive results in both the earthly and spiritual experiences. The success or failure in the spiritual experience then determines the success or failure in the physical experience.

  • The body needs the soul and the spirit.
  • The soul needs the spirit and the body.
  • The spirit needs the body and the soul.

Now from the above, if the soul feeds from both the body and the spirit at the same time, there will be conflict. These 2 entities do not see eye to eye and want different things. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish(Galatians 5:17). Since the body is earthly and experiences earthly lusts, wants or pleasures, to fulfill these it puts pressure on the soul or persuades it to make decisions that will satisfy these. Unfortunately, the Soul is under instruction to be directed by the spirit-the God part. The Soul knows the rules and the consequences of disobedience on both itself and then the house (body) to which it is assigned. This is a spiritual principle and even if one is not a believer in God, the soul itself believes and knows where it came from. Unfortunately, the spirit does not feed itself. The spirit is a visitor in this world and relies on the soul making the right decisions and moves to feed it with the Word of God- its only food. If the soul does not look for food for the spirit, the spirit will become sick (malnourished) and fail to feed the soul back to equip it with the right decisions. This will give the body an upper hand (naturally as the landlord) and bring trouble to the entire being.

“My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

Proverbs 3:21-24

Wisdom (the word of God) gives life to the soul. The soul fails when it decides by its own will to choose the body and resist or ignore the spirit. This lack of divine order and agreement sows discord amongst the 3 entities and is the root to all the problems we find ourselves in as human beings. To read more about this click here.

Surrender Dynamics

Since problems are a result of conflict in the tripatite being, surrender is when the body and the soul both yield to the spirit (God part). However an empty, hungry and weak spirit will not do anything. It is not that the spirit is dull. The spirit being the God part actually knows everything and is fully equipped with all of God (Divine Knowledge). However in the physical world, the spirit must also submit to the laws therein so it waits for the Soul to exercise free will by choosing to feed it and then submit to it. This becomes the awakening of the Spiritman! There has to be absolute order and organisation for this system to work. The soul must acquire food for the spirit while the body waits for instructions that only come via this route. So, the decision centre has to take its part 1st and perform its roles with dilligence. The first major decision a soul must make is to surrender to God. He then begins to build up one’s life by doing new things and restoring peace. Thus, in the art of surrender one must understand these 3 dynamics (i have added a few supporting scriptures for each dynamic)

1. Organize your spiritual relationships- Spirit (Mathew 22:37-38;Isaiah 45:5; Isaiah 48:17; Joshua 1:8; Proverbs 18:14; Phillipians 2:13)

2. Organize yourself within yourself -Soul (Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 12:34; James 1:26; Proverbs 23:7)

3. Organize your earthly relationships- Body (Galatians 5:13-26; I Corinthians 13:1-13; Colossian 3:5-16; Proverbs 18:21)

One cannot surrender unless they submit and trust the one to whom they are giving up to. In anything we do in life, submitting to God entails humbling ourselves before him and acknowledging his Lordship over our lives. Accepting his superiority means emptying ourselves of all the knowledge we think we have on life and starting afresh to get the truth from him. This means inquiring from him, understanding that he knows, believing his side of the story and trusting him to create a better place for us compared to the one we find ourselves in. Its like formatting a corrupt harddrive in the world of ICT and rebooting. God is still in the business of creating, he is the founder of wisdom, he is pre-eminent, omniscient and omnipotent. By him all things consists and in him we move and have our being. Without him, we are absolutely nothing and can do absolutely nothing too. This ugly situation we find ouselves in that we don’t like- we have played a part in it thus far. We may not have originated it especially when we are born in it. However when we come to the age of making decisions, there is something we can do about everything we have gone through to get the progress we seek. As we submit to God and open our hearts to his wisdom, we will also find out that God equipped us for those misfortunes and trusted us to go through them having known the plan of the evil one before hand!In conclusion therefore, the soul is the one that was given the law and rules governing it’s existence on the earth in the body via the spirit. The spirit is equipped with divine knowledge but cannot override the soul in the earth. The body is made to fit into this world but its activities must be governed by the soul as it submits to the spirit. The soul is the one to whom blessings and curses have been promised as its concerns its choices. Therefore the soul must take up the lead, give the button to the spirit who in turn will riseup with fire to consume the lusts of the flesh and fulfill the kingdom mandate via the soul. When the soul is obedient (life), it puts to sleep the works of the flesh in choosing life (spirit/word) against death (body). When it operates in disobedience (death), the flesh is awakened i.e left to its means and causes problems for the human being (death cycles). In other words, the body obeys the soul which obeys the spirit. However, if the spirit is empty (unfed), it cannot guide the soul and the body takes over leading to failure.

I trust that this post has been helpful in understanding the source of our problems and art of surrender.

Join me in Part 3 as we conclude the series dedicated to all ‘Return Soldiers’ by taking a look at the positive efforts we can put to bring our lives back on track.

Till then,

Ester H.

riseUPconqueror!!!!!


Falling is not the problem, failing to riseUP is!!!!

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